One moment, Arjay had been in his room, seeing to his regular… well, he’d call them religious devotions, the next moment, he was somewhere else entirely. Not only that, but he was still in the casual state of dress that he’d been in at that moment… which, naturally, meant that his swords, all of his traveling gear, everything that he’d normally make sure to have with him was all sitting back in the Moon… wherever that was in relation to here. All he had was the lute that he’d been playing for his very attentive audience, which he now slung over his shoulder as he sat up and looked around.

He was at a seaside building, all made of stone and metal and glass, much like some of the more advanced Earth-world buildings he’d seen. Unlike the last one he visited, though, this one didn’t seem to be so magically dead, although it did have an odd feel to it. He could feel his magic there, he could reach for it, but it didn’t feel like it would shape like it usually did. It bore investigation, of course, but that was something that could come later. First, he needed to figure out what was going on.

Looking around as he sat up, he saw that he wasn’t alone. There was Fizzle a short ways away, looking slightly dazed (which explained why she wasn’t bouncing around at this unexpected occurance). There was a man he didn’t know looking around a short ways away, beyond him Arjay spotted Lukk, grateful for another familiar face. As he stood up, he realized he was holding a piece of paper, and he opened it up, peering at the words on it in mild consternation. “What’s a ‘six shooter’?” he wondered aloud, shaking his head.

Then, spotting yet another familiar face, he leaned over, offering Belle his hand. “It would seem you don’t get to leave me behind for this adventure,” he mused as he helped her to her feet.

It was really a good thing that she had been in her lab, working on her projects. Plural; more than one. At the moment, Fizzle could count at least four projects that she was tending, all of which were different levels of volatile. So she was armed with vials of healing potions as well as several incindiaries and acidic compounds. Along with her bag of holding that always had a few choice alchemical creations. Disappearing from her lab might have been alarming except that this sort of thing wasn’t all that uncommon in Hub, or Toril for that matter. It was a magic thing. Magic was… Interesting.

So while she blinked in the sudden brilliance of not-her-lab, Fizzle wasn’t panicked or shocked at her new surroundings. “Well, okay then.” She stood up and brushed herself off, taking off her apron and folding it up before tucking into her bag of holding. Really, the least that ethereal voice could have done was let her get freshened up! Her hair was a mess! Before she could fix it, though, she had to read the little piece of parchment in her hand that she’d found when folding her apron. Weird, that, she hadn’t been holding any paper in her lab, she knew. “Why do I need a crowbar so bad?” She wasn’t even a thief to need one!

Still, she fluffed her ponytails and straightened her bangs before she managed to spot Arjay, a grin breaking out on her face; she might be stuck in some weird world that she didn’t know, but at least she wasn’t along with a bunch of strangers! “Arjay!” The little gnome’s pleasure at seeing her friend here was audible. Hearing the elf’s question, Fizzle shook her head, “No idea. ‘Shooter’ makes me think of a black powder weapon though. Maybe a dwarven thing?” She wrinkled her nose at the idea of a dwarven weapon being needed to get home, but well, the things she’d do (and find) to get back to her shop…

Bouncing along to her baking playlist the one time librarian felt more sure of her place in the world (well really universe) than she had in the last year. The small shop front she’d rented with part of the gold she’d gained from her wishes was roldollent with the smells of good food, freshly made. And as her sign proudly proclaimed her food fed body and soul.

Her mama would not be proud of the first verbal utterance of disgusted (hiding sudden terror because let us please remember the LAST time she was abducted suddenly-) Belle quickly glanced down, oh thank god she was at least wearing clothing this time.

Heart beating a mile a minute, Belle was perfectly prepared (read: would startle and react) to face slam the first man that looked at her funny with her 350 degree cookie sheet!

Which when Arjay addressed her almost made intimate contact with his poor face. “EEEYA-”

Belle aborted the movement just in time eyes wide as he offered her his hand, “Ummm. Oh! Sorry!” Blushing prettily Belle more decorously held out the tray with a sheepish- “Cookie?” Look the poor woman was processing as she could! And southern hospitality manners made for a good cover while she figured out what the damn hell had happened now!

“Revolver, gun. Iffen this place is an’thin like home.” she answered his question, pulling off one of the shark mittens to read the paper stuck in her pocket. “Oh...this ain’t promising at all...Ah need a Gas Mask.” Belle paled biting her lip, if the lists were an indication of items they would need in this world…

Belle blinked at the tiny pink haired lady, she felt a bit of pride that she had seen enough in the Hub to not automatically assume ‘kid’ even if thats what her eyes told her, “Hello honey. Cookie?” She offered politely once Arjay verified he knew her as well.

It wasn’t the first time that Lukk had suddenly found himself in a completely different world than he’d been in a moment before.

Much the same had happened to him when he arrived in Hub; one moment he had been trapped in the Underdark, and the next, he’d been standing in a shop, called upon to serve and assist Arjay. It hadn’t been a bad deal, especially when you consider that it got him away from the drow.

Today, he was mostly happy with his lot in life; Arjay was a rather goodly person, and Hub was an amazing place filled with treasures and adventure. And the people therein were, for the most part, delightful. He appeared with his sword, Starseed, in one hand, a soft polishing cloth in the other, dressed in his armor; after every practice with his weapons, Lukk cleaned them before sheathing them; it was a good habit to be in, and it kept all of his weapons battle-ready.

He might have sheathed his weapon, save finding himself in an unknown world, surrounded by a gathering of people that he assumed to be from Hub by the looks of them told him that it was possible that he might well have need of it. Instead, he moved to replace the cloth in one of his belt pouches, finding that along with it was a piece of paper. He dropped the paper into another pouch before he moved toward Arjay, his countenance still calm and belying how the elf felt about this new turn of events. He was no happier than Belle was, even if he was more calm than she appeared.

At least she hadn’t tried to smack Arjay in the face. Happily, the human woman had her wits about her (and those were some rather fine reflexes, too, if Lukk did say so himself), and Lukk approached slowly, offering Belle a half bow and sheathing the moonblade as he did so, “My lady, my pleasure to meet you.” He looked to Arjay, “I’m to find a round stone. I’m not certain these items are to be used here. Perhaps we are to do something with them to return to Hub?” He smiled at the gnome even as Belle addressed her, “Miss Fizzle.” His smile grew when the gnome grinned at him and acknowledged him in return.

Kaalth had also been working in the kitchen, although he hadn't been baking cookies, he'd been making some bread-the Terran style bread that used microorganisms to change the texture, which had seemed a little unsanitary when Belle had explained it to him the first time, but he had to admit the results were tasty, and the bread was a good companion for the gumbo that Jaya's guy had sent over to the Green Goddess earlier in the day.

When everything shifted, he fell to the floor with a thunk, and it took him a few moments to get his bearings and walk over to the group that was standing around a little distance from where he had landed. The only one he knew was Belle, he didn't recognize the other three, although he was pretty sure that the tall blond men were from the Wandering Moon. Which he hoped wouldn't be a problem, since that tavern was sometimes a rival to the Green Goddess, but Belle seemed to be acting friendly towards them, so he hoped that was a good sign.

As he got close enough to hear the words, he realized that his universal translator was still working, which was a very good thing, since it meant he'd be able to communicate with the rest of them. "Hi, Belle." he said, greeting her by name because she was the only one he knew "Do you know where we are? And what this says?" he held out the paper, which had something written on it that he couldn't read.

At the very least, he’d been sober when it happened. At least he’d been dressed when it happened, for that matter. Pete Wisdom, the Omniverse’s greatest secret agent, straightened his tie, looking around at the facility they found themselves in. Interesting stuff, the techies he knew would probably love taking it apart, although the occupants of it would probably have other things to say about it. The climate was fairly warm, and that was an ocean breeze he could smell coming from the direction of the waves. If he had to guess, he’d say they were in a Mediterranean location, and the symbol that he saw sprayed everywhere… well, that was the same one on that talking ape that had been hopping around the Hub, wasn’t it? He didn’t have much information on that Earth yet, which vexed him, only some basics. A bit farther along in the timeline, from what he understood, and there was supposed to be a significant AI population which clashed with the human population here and there. How that was relevant… well, he didn’t know.

“Well,” he said, speaking up as he approached the group. He supposed it showed promise. The elf that ran the bar was a known quantity, could be counted on to not stab you in the back and generally keep you alive. If you needed to convince him to heal you, make sure to spin some bloody story about someone who loves you who was going to miss you. The gnome… well, Pete would just keep her attention on something that needed blowing up that was not him. The green guy was in the pocket of the mind-controlling whores, judged relatively harmless except that you could figure that whatever he knew, they knew. The other elf was a wild card, presumed to be in league with the first one. And then there was the bombshell who was apparently named Belle (or ‘Future Mrs. Wisdom,’ as he’d refer to her in his head) who appeared to just be a normal woman, but reports had been coming in that that needed to be reevaluated. Well, maybe this would be a chance to reevaluate that. “Well, this isn’t normal.” He sounded annoyed, because he was annoyed. “So our biggest question we need to keep on our minds is ‘who is powerful enough to throw us out of the Hub without using a portal, and why the bloody hell did they do it just to send us on a glorified scavenger hunt.” He looked around a little more, fixing his eyes on the ocean. “Oh, and we’re on the Strait of Gibraltar. Never been to a world where there was a place like this built there, though.”

Arjay's eyes were wide as saucers as the woman, who'd always seemed so gentle otherwise, suddenly accosted him with her cookery. Caught unawares and unwilling to actually strike her in turn, he really had nothing to do but stand there, wide eyed, his eyes shooting comically to one side toward the cookie sheet that stopped mere inches from his head. "If... I'm overstepping, I'm sorry?" he offered, a bit more hesitant in addressing her than he had been moments before. Still, she took his hand, so he helped her to her feet, but he tried to keep someone else between them once she was upright.

He needed to find a smokepowder weapon. Didn’t that just figure for an Earth-world? That was, apparently, what it was, since the drunk in the suit (who wasn’t drunk right now, but from Arjay’s observations from his bar, just give it time) could put a name to the place. How they were supposed to deal with this, though…

While some of the items had to be explained to him (mostly for confirmation), mostly they were self-explanatory. While he didn’t see anyone moving about this facility, if people had been there, there was at least a chance that some of the things were around. He didn’t know about the weapon he needed to find, but a belt buckle? Glasses? Hells, a round rock? “Well, we might as well look around this place and see if we can find what we need. While we do that, we can watch for any way to leave this place.” He could, of course, try opening a gate, but it seemed prudent to try fulfilling the objectives they’d been given to see what happened. After all, if there was some greater force behind their banishment, trying to prematurely return might not be the wisest course of action.

Red haired woman was jamming, and that was fine by Fizzle. One of the things that she had discovered, and now absolutely loved, about Hub, about so many of the different worlds that connected to the amazing city, was the music. Fizzle loved the energy-fueled music, the sort that forced you to get up out of your seat and bounce, the kind you sang along with. And OH, were some of the songs every bit as baudy as all of the songs that her uncle had taught her in the Perky Unicorn. “Aw, s’okay, we all just got dumped here.” Fizzle didn’t move toward the human woman. Instead, she was busily taking inventory; she always, always, always had a bag of holding on her person, and it was, of course, always filled with all the sorts of things she might (or likely wouldn’t) need.

Cookies? She had cookies?! Fizzle was over where Arjay (Oh look! Someone she knew!!) was helping the woman up, grinning. Instead of simple taking the offered cookie, that would be bad manners, Fizzle grinned and held up a small potion to the woman, “Here ya go,” the gnome’s eyes shifted toward the cookie even as she snatched it up, replacing it with the magenta colored vial in Belle’s hand, “In case you hurt your pretty self, or in case you do in the future. Cooking’s dangerous work,” the pink haired gnome nodded seriously, “That’s when the oven’s most likely to blow up.”

Even after she’d taken the cookie and started to eat it, she reached into her belt pouch, not the bag of holding, just a normal pouch, and pulled out a stub of a pencil and a scrap of paper, writing things down:

Crowbar
Six Shooter
Gas Mask
Round Stone

The man in the suit and the green guy hadn’t said what they needed to find, so she just made two little marks on the paper to indicate there were more things yet unknown they’d need to find. Well. Wasn’t that a rather odd assortment of things?

But the human in the suit was carrying on, “Lots of things’re powerful enough to planeshift a buncha people.” She waggled a finger toward Arjay, “He’d know more about how powerful it would have to be for us, but dragons, gods, demigods, maybe a lich… Elminster or the Blackstaff...” She shrugged, “And that’s just from back home.” The guy knew where they were, it seemed, so there was that. That was good, wasn’t it? “Maybe whoever sent us here needs this stuff, and it’s easier to make us get it all than collect it themselves? Not that I know why a crowbar or a round stone would be something you couldn’t just pick up in Hub…” There were plenty of rocks in the city, and crowbars weren’t hard at all to come by…

“But, uh, what’s a gas mask?” She looked to Arjay, “Anyone know this world well enough to find the portal?”

Belle found her all most assault almost ignored, which was really sweet of Arjay. Poor man didn’t need hot baking sheet onto of everything else! „Sorry hun..last time ah was pulled it wasn’t nice.“ she offered with a sheepish smile.

And than the rest of the group formed and Belle realized a few facts, one: It was her and the tiny pink haired woman for the female gender. And 2: Holy heck the men around them were drop dead gorgeous. Now Belle had a partialness to blond men, but maybe the fact that her almost husband was one, the two elves took a hard second place to the tall drink of water that gave her a good godly second look.

„Hallo.“ She wasn’t with out manners smiling at the Elf that introduced himself to her, „Belle.“ offering him a cookie as well. Kaalth she knew from her months at the Goddess. „Hi hon, ya ok?“ belle reached for him snugging him into her side. She’d seen the way the women at the Goddess treated him and had adapted her own big sisterly approach to her interactions with him as well, he wasn’t dim but sometimes he just seemed one step out of place an‘ she felt it her job to keep an eye out for the poor man, „There ya go sweetie.“ Belle read out the word for him, and for a lack of a better plan handed him a cookie as well. „I really don’t.“ But she knew two of the men she was stuck with< and she was dressed. This was already turning out better than her last adventure.

But it seemed tall dark and handsome at least had some answers, „There’s a few, Death, an‘ ya think what ever made the portals could easily toss us out again.“ She responded to his half question, adding her own two cents. „

When Arjay talked about getting a move on Belle nodded firmly in agreement. „Best ta get prepared as we can.“

"Oh, aye, there's plenty that could do it, Luv, no doubt about that," Pete agreed. The fact that he'd seen her appraising eyes looking him over in return made his mouth go a bit dry and ideas start to race through his head, but he could be professional for now. For values of 'professional' which meant 'cool, dashing, and impressive to the ladies.' "Thing is, which of them could do it to people all over the Hub at once, and just for a laugh like this?" he said, waving his little scrap of parchment. "Because as much as it pains me to admit it, Luv, I wasn't anywhere close to you when this happened, or any of you for that matter. First question we really need to ask is if his magic can send us back," he said, nodding at Arjay. "If he can't? Then this is big." Of course, Pete had no idea if this little incident involved more than just the six of them, but even so, for one of the heavy-hitters to pull a little trick like this on the pet of one of the other resident gods in the Hub, they had to feel very secure in their power and the lack of retribution they'd face.

He really wished that he'd ended up on a world where he had more resources, more contacts, hell, even just an established cell service, but they'd have to make do. This base had power, which meant there were people there, and as long as those people weren't hostile, they might be in good shape. "This place looks like it's either military or research. Either one would be likely to have a gas mask around somewhere," he said. Belle's request wasn't bothering him. "Just as likely to have a crowbar around somewhere. That six shooter's probably going to be the hardest thing to find. Well... a round rock might be a little tricky too. The shore's that way, though, look along it long enough and you'll find one round enough." He took the parchment that Kaalth was holding out, glanced at it, and handed it back. "Belt buckle. Just find a locker room in there and raid it, I'm probably going to have to do the same to find a pair of glasses."

There was a steady 'whump whump' sound, though, that had been growing to the south of them, which caused Pete to pause, taking his sunglasses off with a sigh. "Tell me that I'm the only one who hears that," he said. "I was enjoying there not being anyone else around us."

Growing up the child of a noble house, Lukk was possessed of manners second to none. But those manners flew out the window when his liege was threatened. Belle might be a woman, a rather beautiful one at that, but Lukk didn’t discriminate; where he was from, beautiful women could completely thrash a man if he weren’t atop his game. See his sister for confirmation - she would decimate a man who dared to think less of her due to her gender. Most of the women in his family were the same way, and really, Lukk preferred it that way. Gender wasn’t something to judge someone on. So when Belle took a swing (and very nearly connected with) Arjay, Lukk’s moonblade was out of its sheath immediately and the elf had the time to take a single step forward before shifting to stand down.

The woman’s instincts were superb, that was for sure. Lukk glanced to Arjay, arching his brow and asking quietly in elven if he were okay. Because that swing? Well, Lukk could imagine that would have stung; they were lucky the woman hadn’t been holding a blade.

He didn’t turn down the offered cookie, instead eating it thoughtfully as he watched the others converse. The gnome, the woman, the dark haired man… . His ears twitched at the odd sounds that were coming toward them from the south, and eventually he turned his head to try to figure out where it was coming from. “I hear it as well, my apologies for not giving you the testimony you wished for.”

Well, now that Arjay was being called out on his magic, he supposed that he would need to try, whether or not he had an idea about the result. He chanted that melodic spell, and for a moment it felt like they were being tugged from this reality... but the force tugging at them broke before it could become more than a hopeful wish to return from whence they came. "No," he said, honestly. "We seem to be locked in this world for the moment. Whether we need to be let back in or whether we need to find a path out, I'm not sure, but my magic isn't doing the job."

Arjay frowned, focusing on what his ears were telling him for just a moment. He wondered if the human realized just how much pointless and unnatural noise was in their worlds from all their machines, if he expected them to be picking one single sound out of it all as important. Still, if the human could hear it, it must be one that was particularly loud, and it didn't take him long to zero in on one particular sound, more notable than all the others. It was some distance away, and he had no idea what it was, but there was always a way to fix that, wasn't there? "It's mechanical, but I'm not familiar with the Earth-worlds enough to know what it is," Arjay admitted. He hadn't after all, heard a helicopter before. I hear footsteps, the sound of metal... No talking. Either those of this place are unnaturally stoic and silent, or this is a raiding party." And here he didn't have a weapon... well, he supposed that he'd have to make do. "You've seen me relying on my swordplay before," he remarked, amused, to Belle, as he pulled out a wand from the handle of his lute. A bard had to be ready for a hostile crowd, after all, "Now you get to see me doing completely without it." He cast another spell, and a rush of magic surged over them, leaving the entire party invisible. "Well, so to speak, I suppose."

The red-head and the raven-haired gent seemed to have eyes for each other. That was cute. Humans were adorable. What was surprising was that they both looked right past the elves in the group to find each other. Fizzle looked around herself; two humans, two elves, a rather lovely looking orcish man and her little old self. Well, that was something, wasn’t it? And it didn’t escape Fizzle’s notice that she and the red-head were the only gals in the group. Not that the gnome was complaining! “What’s ta say that this is all just for a laugh?” Fizzle shrugged at the human man, “Not saying you’re wrong, but we have no idea why whoever it was that did this sent us here. Could be a reason.” She looked around, “Not one that I understand at the moment, but still…” She grinned, “Sometimes the reasoning behind a thing isn’t immediately apparent.”

The mention of the sound had the gnome falling silent, head cocking with the sort of attentiveness that was usually reserved for her laboratory. But this place? It was new and possibly wondrous. She knew the sound of mechanics, too, heavy pieces of metal… She didn’t have the super sensitive hearing an elf would have, but her ears were every bit as keen (perhaps keener!) as a human’s, and she frowned, both at what she heard and what her elven friend described.

That sort of noise was never a good sign. Especially with the lack of voices.

Reaching into one of the multitudes of pouches on her belt, Fizzle drew out a vial filled with a rather caustic looking substance whose color ranged from a sickly yellow to a dirty orange and finally a fiery red. She gave the glass vial a hearty shake and a hissing sound emanated from it even as the liquid within bubbled. The look she gave to her fellows was brightly wicked, “Metal won’t be a problem for very long.” She blinked when Arjay’s spell made them all invisible, and she gave a small sigh, “Well if we can sneak away, it’s less waste of supplies…” The statement didn’t truly hide the little hint of disappointment, though.